Read Online The Epic of New York City by Edward Robb Ellis - Free Book Online Page A
Authors: Edward Robb Ellis
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in fireplaces lined with picture tiles, but in other rooms ink froze in pens. Most afflicted were the slaves called humble men, who carried buckets of filth from backyard privies and dumped them into the rivers. Despite the scarcity of food and rising prices, Stuyvesant provisioned company ships bound for Curaçao. This aroused the indignation of the Nine Men, who accused the governor of âwanton imprudence.â
Streets were few, crooked, muddy, and overrun with livestock and fowl. During all the time the Dutch occupied New Amsterdam, the city never extended farther north than Wall Street, 550 yards from the tip of lower Manhattan. Men drove wagons so fast that Stuyvesant ordered them to walk beside their vehicles and hold the horsesâ reins. The first street to be paved was Brouwer, or Brewer, Street, named for its many breweries. Today it is known as Stone Street. It runs in a northeasterly direction from Whitehall Street to Hanover Square. In 1657 the first half, from Whitehall Street to Broad Street, was laid with cobblestones. These formed more sidewalk than pavement, for an open gutter was left in the center of the street. Benjamin Franklin, a resident of more sophisticated Philadelphia, later said that he could identify a New Yorker by his awkward gait when he walked on Philadelphiaâs smooth pavingââlike a parrot upon a mahogany table.â
Pearl Street, the oldest street in town, was lined with dwellings. Battery Place, bounding Battery Park on the north, was a much wider street than it is today and took the name of Marcktveldt because of cattle fairs held there. Outside town, four blocks north of Wall Street, Maagde Paatje, or Maidensâ Path, began at Broadway and twisted to the southeast along the curve of a stream. Dutch girls who couldnât afford to send their clothes to a laundry washed their linen in the stream. Today the path is called Maiden Lane.
The Dutch never built log cabins, which were introduced into America by the Swedes in the Delaware Valley. The first houses erected in New Amsterdam were one-story wood structures containing two rooms. In Stuyvesantâs time some houses were made of brick and stone. In 1628 kilns had been established here. They produced small yellow and black bricks, called Holland bricks to distinguish them from the larger English variety. The northern part of Manhattan provided an abundance of stone. Slowly the colonists began putting up two-story houses, whose second floors overhung the first floors.
A distinctive feature of Dutch architectureâone that lasted well into the brownstone eraâwas the high stoop at the front of the house. In Holland the first floors were raised high above the street, for in that nether land a hole in a dike could flood the land around a manâs house. In America the Dutch built a steep flight of steps to the front doors. In warm weather the stoop served as the family gathering place, pipe-smoking men keeping their eyes on their neighborsâ weathercocks, mothers shelling peas, and children shouting across the narrow streets.
Most front doors were ornamented with huge brass knockers shaped like a dogâs or lionâs head, and these had to be polished every day. Doors were large, and windows were small. Window glass was imported from Holland. Doors had an upper and a lower half. The lower half was usually kept shut so that a housewife could lean on it to gossip with a neighbor, yet keep pigs and hens out of her kitchen.
The houses had comfortable, if narrow, interiors, the low ceilings pierced by exposed wooden beams, alcoves, and window seats set into the whitewashed walls. Bare floors were scrubbed rigorously and then sprinkled with fine sand, which was broom-stroked into fantastic patterns. Furniture was plain and heavy and was made mostly of oak, maple, or nutwood. The Dutch lacked sofas, couches, or lounges. Their best chairs were made of Russian leather studded with brass
Streets were few, crooked, muddy, and overrun with livestock and fowl. During all the time the Dutch occupied New Amsterdam, the city never extended farther north than Wall Street, 550 yards from the tip of lower Manhattan. Men drove wagons so fast that Stuyvesant ordered them to walk beside their vehicles and hold the horsesâ reins. The first street to be paved was Brouwer, or Brewer, Street, named for its many breweries. Today it is known as Stone Street. It runs in a northeasterly direction from Whitehall Street to Hanover Square. In 1657 the first half, from Whitehall Street to Broad Street, was laid with cobblestones. These formed more sidewalk than pavement, for an open gutter was left in the center of the street. Benjamin Franklin, a resident of more sophisticated Philadelphia, later said that he could identify a New Yorker by his awkward gait when he walked on Philadelphiaâs smooth pavingââlike a parrot upon a mahogany table.â
Pearl Street, the oldest street in town, was lined with dwellings. Battery Place, bounding Battery Park on the north, was a much wider street than it is today and took the name of Marcktveldt because of cattle fairs held there. Outside town, four blocks north of Wall Street, Maagde Paatje, or Maidensâ Path, began at Broadway and twisted to the southeast along the curve of a stream. Dutch girls who couldnât afford to send their clothes to a laundry washed their linen in the stream. Today the path is called Maiden Lane.
The Dutch never built log cabins, which were introduced into America by the Swedes in the Delaware Valley. The first houses erected in New Amsterdam were one-story wood structures containing two rooms. In Stuyvesantâs time some houses were made of brick and stone. In 1628 kilns had been established here. They produced small yellow and black bricks, called Holland bricks to distinguish them from the larger English variety. The northern part of Manhattan provided an abundance of stone. Slowly the colonists began putting up two-story houses, whose second floors overhung the first floors.
A distinctive feature of Dutch architectureâone that lasted well into the brownstone eraâwas the high stoop at the front of the house. In Holland the first floors were raised high above the street, for in that nether land a hole in a dike could flood the land around a manâs house. In America the Dutch built a steep flight of steps to the front doors. In warm weather the stoop served as the family gathering place, pipe-smoking men keeping their eyes on their neighborsâ weathercocks, mothers shelling peas, and children shouting across the narrow streets.
Most front doors were ornamented with huge brass knockers shaped like a dogâs or lionâs head, and these had to be polished every day. Doors were large, and windows were small. Window glass was imported from Holland. Doors had an upper and a lower half. The lower half was usually kept shut so that a housewife could lean on it to gossip with a neighbor, yet keep pigs and hens out of her kitchen.
The houses had comfortable, if narrow, interiors, the low ceilings pierced by exposed wooden beams, alcoves, and window seats set into the whitewashed walls. Bare floors were scrubbed rigorously and then sprinkled with fine sand, which was broom-stroked into fantastic patterns. Furniture was plain and heavy and was made mostly of oak, maple, or nutwood. The Dutch lacked sofas, couches, or lounges. Their best chairs were made of Russian leather studded with brass
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